Iran's Foreign Policy: From Khatami to Ahmadinejad

by Anoush Ehteshami and Mahjoob Zweiri (editors)

From the publisher:
This timely collection of papers by leading academics and prominent government officials sheds new light on the foreign policy of Iran under President Khatami and into the period of President Ahmadinejad. The topics covered include the influence of the Iranian constitution on its foreign policy, Iran's relations with the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and the Arab world, and Iranian involvement in Iraq.

From LWBN:
The exact day of release for this November title is unknown.

Essentials of Terrorism: Concepts and Controversies

by Clarence Augustus Martin

Essentials of Terrorism: Concepts and Controversies is a concise resource for understanding modern terrorism. This briefer version of Martin’s popular text Understanding Terrorism, Second Edition, can be readily used in conjunction with other resources such as Martin’s The New Era of Terrorism collection of readings, or with other supplemental texts or journal articles.

The content of Essentials of Terrorism: Concepts and Controversies is directed to academic and professional courses of instruction whose subject areas include terrorism, homeland security, international security, criminal justice administration, political conflict, armed conflict, and social movements. It can also be incorporated into academic conferences and professional training seminars covering international and homeland security studies, criminal justice administration, the attributes of terrorism and extremism, conflict resolution, and related subjects of inquiry.

The intended level of instruction is flexible: As a stand-alone text, it is suitable for introductory undergraduate classes. When used in conjunction with other resources, the level of instruction can be adapted to upper-division undergraduate and master’s-level classes. If used in conjunction with professional manuals, Essentials of Terrorism: Concepts and Controversies is suitable for professional practitioners who require instruction in understanding terrorism.

Gus Martin is the assistant vice president for Faculty affairs in the Division of Academic Affairs at California State University, Dominguez Hills. His research and professional interests are juvenile justice, terrorism and extremism, administration of justice, and fair housing. He has served as a panelist for university and community symposia and interviews on the subjects of administration of justice, terrorism, and fair housing. He has also been a consultant to government and private agencies. Prior to joining academia, he was a legislative assistant to Congressman Charles B. Rangel of New York and Special Counsel to the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands. In addition, he served as managing attorney for the Fair Housing Partnership of Greater Pittsburgh, where he was also director of a program created under a federal consent decree to desegregate public and assisted housing. He is the author of the following Sage titles: Understanding Terrorism 2/e, Juvenile Justice, and The New Era of Terrorism.

Technology and Security: Governing Threats in the New Millennium

by Brian Rappert

From the publisher:
Technology and Security takes forward the existing state of academic understanding where security and technology intersect. It assesses the challenges posed by emerging scientific and technological developments for security while understanding how perceptions of security threats are themselves formed in relation to conceptions of science and technology.

BRIAN RAPPERT is an Associate Professor of Science, Technology and Public Affairs in the Department of Sociology & Philosophy at the University of Exeter, UK. His long term interest has been the examination of how choices can and are made about the regulation of technologies in conditions of uncertainty and disagreement.

On Nuclear Terrorism

by Michael Levi

From the publisher:
Nuclear terrorism is such a disturbing prospect that we shy away from its details. Yet as a consequence, we fail to understand how best to defeat it. Michael Levi takes us inside nuclear terrorism and behind the decisions a terrorist leader would be faced with in pursuing a nuclear plot. Along the way, Levi identifies the many obstacles, large and small, that such a terrorist scheme might encounter, allowing him to discover a host of ways that any plan might be foiled.

Surveying the broad universe of plots and defenses, this accessible account shows how a wide-ranging defense that integrates the tools of weapon and materials security, law enforcement, intelligence, border controls, diplomacy, and the military can multiply, intensify, and compound the possibility that nuclear terrorists will fail. Levi draws from our long experience with terrorism and cautions us not to focus solely on the most harrowing yet most improbable threats. Nuclear terrorism shares much in common with other terrorist threats--and as a result, he argues, defeating it is impossible unless we put our entire counterterrorism and homeland security house in order.

As long as we live in a nuclear age, no defense can completely eliminate nuclear terrorism. But this book reminds us that the right strategy can minimize the risks and shows us how to do it.

Michael Levi presents a strong case for why we need to do everything we can to keep the world's most dangerous weapons and materials out of the hands of the world's most dangerous people. He focuses on the broad range of today's nuclear threats and provides unique insights into how terrorist groups work. He also makes important specific recommendations to address these dangers -- the most critical security issue facing our nation and the world. -- Sam Nunn, Former U.S. Senator and Co-Chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative

A Chronology of United States–Iraqi Relations, 1920–2006

by Henry E. Mattox

From CWBN:
This volume offers an extensive chronological overview of the political, economic, and diplomatic relations between the United States and Iraq from 1920 to 2006. The beginning year of the chronicle is when the U.S. was beginning to comprehend the vital importance of Iraq’s abundant oil supplies. The work continues through several major events in U.S.-Iraqi relations, including several Iraqi coups and countercoups, the U.S. response to Iraq’s invasions of Iran and Kuwait, and each country’s actions in the first Gulf War and the current Iraq War. The overview ends in December 2006, at the news of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s death and the end of the Ba’athist Party regime.

Henry E. Mattox is a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer. He is also the author of Chronology of World Terrorism, 1901–2001 (2004) and lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

A Window of Opportunity: Europe, Gulf Security and the Aftermath of the Iraq War

by Christian Koch and Felix Neugart (editors)

From the publisher:
Contributors to this volume explore the chances for greater engagement by the European Union in future Gulf security arrangements. They look at a variety of themes including the security prerogatives of the Gulf States, the current situation in both Iraq and Iran, the applicability of various security models for the region and the possibility of expanding the GCC-EU political dialogue on security matters.

Christian Koch is Program Director for GCC-EU Relations at the Gulf Research Center (GRC), Dubai. Felix Neugart is a Research Fellow at Ludwig-Maximilians Unversity, Munich.

What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat

by Louise Richardson

From the publisher:
How can the most powerful country in the world feel so threatened by an enemy infinitely weaker than we are? How can loving parents and otherwise responsible citizens join terrorist movements? How can anyone possibly believe that the cause of Islam can be advanced by murdering passengers on a bus or an airplane?

In this important new book, groundbreaking scholar Louise Richardson answers these questions and more, providing an indispensable guide to the greatest challenge of our age.

After defining–once and for all–what terrorism is, Richardson explores its origins, its goals, what’s to come, and what is to be done about it. Having grown up in rural Ireland and watched her friends join the Irish Republican Army, Richardson knows from firsthand experience how terrorism can both unite and destroy a community. As a professor at Harvard, she has devoted her career to explaining terrorist movements throughout history and around the globe. From the biblical Zealots to the medieval Islamic Assassins to the anarchists who infiltrated the cities of Europe and North America at the turn of the last century, terrorists have struck at enemies far more powerful than themselves with targeted acts of violence. Yet Richardson understands that terrorists are neither insane nor immoral. Rather, they are rational political actors who often deploy carefully calibrated tactics in a measured and reasoned way. What is more, they invariably go to great lengths to justify their actions to themselves, their followers, and, often, the world.

Richardson shows that the nature of terrorism did not change after the attacks of September 11, 2001; what changed was our response. She argues that the Bush administration’s “global war on terror” was doomed to fail because of an ignorance of history, a refusal to learn from the experience of other governments, and a fundamental misconception about how and why terrorists act. As an alternative, Richardson offers a feasible strategy for containing the terrorist threat and cutting off its grassroots support.

Challenges to Global Security: Geopolitics and Power in an Age of Transition

by Hussein Solomon

Ours is an age of great upheaval where change sometimes appears to be the only constant. Three of the most important forces driving such change are globalization, regionalization and democratization. This substantial work makes a concerted attempt to understand these forces, and to show how they impact on the vitally important question of global security in the USA, Latin America, South Asia, South East Asia, Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and Africa. Each discourse receives substantial coverage: from economics and politics to religion, religious fundamentalism and human rights.

Hussein Solomon lectures in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria where he is also Director of the Centre for International Political Studies. He sits on the International Steering Committee of the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research in Hawaii, and serves as a member of the Executive Committee of Global Action to Prevent War.

Madrasas in South Asia: Teaching Terror?

by Jamal Malik

From the publisher:
After 9/11, madrasas have been linked to international terrorism. They are suspected to foster anti-western, traditionalist or even fundamentalist views and to train al-Qaeda fighters. This has led to misconceptions on madrasa-education in general and its role in South Asia in particular. Government policies to modernize and ‘pacify’ madrasas have been precipitous and mostly inadequate.

This book discusses the educational system of madrasas in South Asia. It gives a contextual account of different facets of madrasa education from historical, anthropological, theological, political and religious studies perspectives. Some contributions offer recommendations on possible – and necessary – reforms of religious educational institutions. It also explores the roots of militancy and sectarianism in Pakistan, as well as its global context.

Overall, this book tries to correct misperceptions on the role of madrasas, by providing a more balanced discussion, which denies neither the shortcomings of religious educational institutions in South Asia nor their important contributions to mass education.

An Iraq of Its Regions: Cornerstones of a Federal Democracy?

by Reidar Visser and Gareth Stansfield (editors)

From the publisher:
The fall of Saddam Hussein's regime may have marked a watershed moment in Iraqi history, but to the majority of Iraq's eighteen governorates, the most dramatic shifts in power have yet to occur. In 2008, federal entities will begin to form in south Kurdistan, triggering a series of fundamental changes in Iraq's state structure.

This open-ended process is poorly understood in the West, with many believing that federalization will lead to the creation of three large regions based on Iraq's dominant ethno-religious communities: Shiite Arabs, the Sunni Arabs, and the Kurds. However, if the Iraqi constitution is upheld, such an outcome is actually quite unlikely. According to the Iraqi charter, ethnicity does not play a role in the delineation of Iraq's federal map. Instead, regions geographically defined by the conversion or amalgamation of existing governorates will form the building blocks of the new Iraq. In this volume, contributors offer the first comprehensive overview of regionalism as a political force in Iraq. Their essays present a richly detailed yet cogent analysis of the political and geographical challenges Iraq will face in the upcoming decade.

Reidar Visser is a research fellow specializing in Iraqi politics at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Oslo. He is the author of Basra, the Failed Gulf State: Separatism and Nationalism in Southern Iraq.

Gareth Stansfield is reader in Middle Eastern politics at the University of Exeter and the author of several books, including Iraq: People, History, Politics.

From CWBN:
The exact day of release for this November title is unknown.

Denial of Sanctuary: Understanding Terrorist Safe Havens

by Michael A. Innes

From the publisher:
Critics of the war on terror have pointed to the futility of waging war on a tactic. Its emphasis on denying "sanctuary" and "safe havens" to terrorists, rooted primarily in traditional counterinsurgency theory and poorly conceptualized policy statements, has placed a premium on physical territory, from mountain caves and frontier hideouts to the bordered world of modern states. To fully understand sanctuaries is to uncover the problems and pitfalls of waging war on locations - exposing the secret lives of multiple hidden worlds, filled with extremists, criminals, soldiers, and spies, with the pious and the profane, with dangers that lie below the surface and in the margins. As this volume makes abundantly clear, such a murky underground is far more complex and varied than the conventional wisdom suggests.

Terrorists have hidden in plain sight in modern cities, used advanced communications technology to build virtual refuges, crafted militant enclaves out of the disarray of failed states, flocked to distinctly unsafe insurgent battlespaces, and generally challenged the protective limits of law, citizenship, and state. Denial of Sanctuary brings together top experts in the field to expand the debate; to explore the roots, causes and consequences of the problem; and to clarify our understanding of sanctuary in terrorist thought and practice.

"[D]emonstrates the shortcomings of proposals to attack terrorism at its source when there are so many ways of hiding: in the ungovernable interiors of failed states, in the obscurity of urban London, on the Internet." - Foreign Affairs

"Denial of Sanctuary is essential reading for anyone seeking a better understanding of the role of terrorist and insurgent safe havens." - William Rosenau, Ph.D RAND Corporation Washington Office

"In an age where divisive rhetoric and personal opinion increasingly pass for knowledge and expertise on the nature of terrorism, Michael Innes has assembled what in years to come will be seen as the indispensable contribution to understanding terrorist sanctuary and its implications. In his carefully researched and thought-provoking collection we find terrorism analysis at its very best and essential reading for students, theorists, diplomats and policymakers alike. Simply excellent." - John Horgan, Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St. Andrews

"Denial of Sanctuary offers the first comprehensive glimpse into those cracks between and within states that provide safe refuge for terrorists. Innes takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of the liminal realm that has come to capture the attention of students of geopolitics, transnational violence and the modern state. From reflections on counter-sanctuary discourse to first-person reports from inside Afghani military prisons, this volume challenges our preconceptions of terrorist sanctuaries and offers cutting-edge analyses of their military, legal, financial and virtual implications." - Ron E. Hassner, Assistant professor of political science, UC Berkeley

MICHAEL A. INNES is Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, and a Research and Practice Associate of the Institute for National Security and Counter-Terrorism, College of Law/Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. His research and writing focuses on intermediacy in armed conflict, and touches on broader theories and histories of political violence, sanctuary, surrogacy, and political and legal exceptionalism. His publications include an edited monograph, Bosnian Security after Dayton: New Perspectives (2006), as well as articles, essays, and reviews in such journals as Civil Wars, Small Wars and Insurgencies, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, SAIS Review, and the Journal of Conflict Studies.

From CWBN:
This title originally appeared in July and was recently brough to our attention. For additional incormation see here and here.

Special Forces, Terrorism and Strategy: Warfare By Other Means

by Alastair Finlan

From the publisher:
This volume undertakes a systematic analysis of the relationship between Special Forces and contemporary strategy, explaining the resurgence of interest in Special Forces, particularly in the West, by exploring their appeal over traditional conventional force options in the current ‘War on Terror’.

Special Forces, Terrorism and Strategy comprises four overarching themes:

- theory and practice
- command and control
- culture and technology
- operations and the ‘War on Terror’

By developing a credible theory about the role of Special Forces in contemporary strategy, Alastair Finlan assesses the changing character of the relationship between conventional forces and Special Forces, illustrating the prominent role of these forces in the ‘War on Terror’.

This book will be of great interest to students of strategic studies and military history, as well as for professional military colleges.

Global Insurgency and the Future of Armed Conflict: Debating Fourth-Generation Warfare

by Regina Karp, Aaron Karp, Terry Terriff (editors)

From the publisher:
This volume covers a timely debate in contemporary security studies: can armed forces adjust to the rising challenge of insurgency and terrorism, the greatest transformation in warfare since the birth of the international system? Containing essays by leading international security scholars and military professionals, it explores the Fourth-Generation Warfare thesis and its implications for security planning in the twenty-first century.

No longer confined to the fringes of armed conflict, guerrilla warfare and terrorism increasingly dominate world-wide military planning. For the first time since the Vietnam War ended, the problems of insurgency have leapt to the top of the international security agenda and virtually all countries are struggling to protect themselves against terrorist threats. Coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq are bogged down by an insurgency, and are being forced to rely on old warfare tactics rather than modern technologies to destroy their adversaries. These theorists argue that irregular warfare—insurgencies and terrorism—has evolved over time and become progressively more sophisticated and difficult to defeat as it is not centred on high technology and state of the art weaponry.

Global Insurgency and the Future of Armed Conflict will be of interest to students of international security, strategic studies and terrorism studies.

China's War on Terrorism: Counter-Insurgency, Politics and Internal Security

by Martin I. Wayne

From the publisher:
China’s war on terror is among its most prominent and least understood of campaigns. With links to the global jihad, an indigenous insurgency threatens the government’s grip on a massive region of north- western China known as Xinjiang. Riots, bombings, ambushes, and assassinations have rocked the region under separatist and Islamist banners. China acted early and forcefully, and although brutal, their efforts represent one of the few successes in the global struggle against Islamist terrorism.

The effectiveness of this campaign has raised questions regarding whether China genuinely confronts a terrorist threat. In this book, based on extensive fieldwork, Martin Wayne investigates China’s counterinsurgency effort, highlighting the success of an approach centred on reshaping local society and government institutions. At the same time, he raises the question of what the United States may be able to learn from China’s approach, and argues that as important a case as Xinjiang needs to be fully examined in order for terrorism to be defeated.

This book will be of interest to students of China, Asian politics, terrorism and security studies in general.

Shadow Warriors: The Untold Story of Traitors, Saboteurs, and the Party of Surrender

by Kenneth R. Timmerman

From the publisher:
It is an intelligence war conducted behind the scenes, aimed at confusing, misleading, and ultimately defeating the enemy. The goal is nothing less than toppling the regime in power.

Who is the target of this vast, sophisticated CIA operation? The target is America's president, George W. Bush.

Drawing on exclusive information from senior government officials, intelligence operatives, and many others, investigative reporter Kenneth Timmerman provides the full, untold story of the sabotage that occurs behind the scenes at key government agencies.

Kenneth R. Timmerman is the author of several books, including Preachers of Hate: Islam and the War on America, the New York Times bestseller Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson, and The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq. An investigative reporter who has written for Time, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, and Reader’s Digest, he lived in France for eighteen years.

The Islamic Republic and the World: Global Dimensions of the Iranian Revolution

by Maryam Panah

From the publisher:
Iran is now in the eye of the storm. As events in Iraq deteriorate, a US invasion of Iran looms as a real threat.

This book provides a detailed analysis of Iran's recent history, and in particular how the country has been shaped by the 1979 revolution. It is often forgotten that modern Iran is a revolutionary republic that arose out of the overthrow of the old, secular and very pro-western regime. Since the revolution, this has been replaced by an Islamic State.

Maryam Panah explores the Iranian revolution in its international context, and examines the different forces at play within the country, and how these conflicting political interests continue to mould the country today and shape its external relations.

Maryam Panah was born in Iran and is a fluent Farsi speaker. After reading Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University, she completed her doctoral thesis at the London School of Economics. She works in the field of international development, has recently lived in the UK, Belgium and India and is currently based in Berlin.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War

by Ashley Gilbertson

From the publisher:
Arriving in Iraq on the eve of the U.S. invasion, unaffiliated with any newspaper and hoping to pick up assignments along the way, Ashley Gilbertson was one of the first photojournalists to cover the disintegration of America’s military triumph as looting and score settling convulsed Iraqi cities. Just twenty-five years old at the time, Gilbertson soon landed a contract with the New York Times, and his extraordinary images of life in occupied Iraq and of American troops in action began appearing in the paper regularly.

Throughout his work, Gilbertson took great risks to document the risks taken by others, whether dodging sniper fire with American infantry, photographing an Iraqi bomb squad as they diffused IEDs, or following marines into the cauldron of urban combat.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot gathers the best of Gilbertson’s photographs, chronicling America’s early battles in Iraq, the initial occupation of Baghdad, the insurgency that erupted shortly afterward, the dramatic battle to overtake Falluja, and ultimately, the country’s first national elections. No Western photojournalist has done as much sustained work in occupied Iraq as Gilbertson, and this wide-ranging treatment of the war from the viewpoint of a photographer is the first of its kind. Accompanying each section of the book is a personal account of Gilbertson’s experiences covering the conflict. Throughout, he conveys the exhilaration and terror of photographing war, as well as the challenges of photojournalism in our age of embedded reporting. But ultimately, and just as importantly, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot tells the story of Gilbertson’s own journey from hard-drinking bravado to the grave realism of a scarred survivor. Here he struggles with guilt over the death of a marine escort, tells candidly of his own experience with post-traumatic stress, and grapples with the reality that Iraq—despite the sacrifice in Iraqi and American lives—has descended into a civil war with no end in sight.

A searing account of the American experience in Iraq, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is sure to become one of the classic war photography books of our time.

From the critics:
The author rarely passes up the chance to record blood stains, ruined homes, flames and explosions as well as the sad stories behind them. Not yet 30, Gilbertson has clearly studied James Nachtwey, Robert Capa and David Douglas Duncan; this impressive book shows he has absorbed their lessons. - Publishers Weekly

From LWBN:
The University of Chicago Press advises us that readers

might be interested in a video we recently released online at the University of Chicago Press. In our video interview with Ashley Gilbertson he talks about the invasion of Iraq, the battle for Falluja, the Marines he worked with, post-traumatic stress disorder, Iraqi civilians, and the future of photojournalism.

The video is available at our website for the book
http://www.wtfiraq.org/

Gilbertson's own website is

http://www.ashleygilbertson.com/

where he has a extensive gallery of his Iraq photos:

http://www.ashleygilbertson.com/iraq.html

War on Terror, Inc.: Corporate Profiteering from the Politics of Fear

by Solomon Hughes

From the publisher:
Ever since British army housing was sold off to the highest bidder in the mid-1990s, military and national security planners and their political masters in the USA and UK have been seeking opportunities to plug the gap between what they would like to do—and frequently claim they can do—and what is actually possible. As Solomon Hughes shows in this gripping and shameful account, there will always be a private company willing to pitch for this fabulously lucrative business, whether providing the additional soldiery which made the invasion of Iraq seem realistic, or creating vast, minimally validated databases of people deemed to be a threat to national security.

Who is behind companies that reap the dividend of war? How close are they to our political decision-makers? Do they actually deliver what they are contracted to deliver, and at a cost-effective price? Hughes catalogues the appalling record of private contractors doing our governments' dirtiest work, and asks how we can possibly justify delivering into the hands of market forces an area of public life which requires the very highest standards of scrupulousness and integrity.

Solomon Hughes is a freelance investigative reporter who has written for the Observer, Guardian, Independent and In These Times. His work also appears regularly in Private Eye magazine.

From Heritage to Terrorism: Regulating Tourism in an Age of Uncertainty

by Brian Simpson

From CWBN:
Critical in style, this book examines the law and its role in shaping and defining tourism and the tourist experience. Using a broad range of legal documents and other materials from a variety of disciplines, it surveys how the underlying values of tourism often conflict with a concern for human rights, cultural heritage and sustainable environments.

Departing from the view that within this context the law is simply relegated to dealing the ‘hard edges’ of the tourist industry and tourist behaviour, the authors explore:

- the ways that the law shapes the nature of tourism how it can do this
- the need for a more focused role for law in tourism
- the law’s current and potential role in dealing with the various tensions for - tourism in the panic created by the spread of global terrorism.

Addressing a range of fundamental issues underlying global conflict and tourism, this thoroughly up-to-date and topical book is an essential read for all those interested in tourism and law.

From LWBN:
The publisher shows the release date for this volume as Sept. 30; Amazon shows it as today's date.

Ending Terrorism: Lessons for Policymakers from the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Groups

by Audrey K Cronin

From the publisher:
Terrorism, like war, never ends; but individual terrorist campaigns and the groups that perpetuate them always do. Why? This Adelphi Paper comparatively examines the waning days of terrorist groups, to understand crucial points where a critical mass of factors developed and led toward their demise. The goal is to identify typical watersheds and mistakes and search for parallels with the current threat.

Like all other terrorist movements, al-Qaeda will end. While it is a remarkable movement with traits that exploit and reflect the current international context, it is not utterly without precedent: some aspects of al-Qaeda are unusual, but some are not. How terrorist movements end reflects, among other factors, the counter-terrorist policies taken against them. It therefore makes sense to formulate those policies with an awareness of historical precedents and a specific image of an end in mind. The monograph analyses recent experience with the decline and demise of terrorist groups to gather policy lessons that apply to domestic, foreign and security policy today.